Modern middlegame theory does not exist in written form. That is why players and trainers have to go back to the old recommendation by Nimzowitsch – to study typical positional methods. But who is better placed to teach us about their own powerful weapons than the great champions of the past? So the key to understanding the middlegame lies in understanding how to execute certain positional manoeuvres. In this DVD Mikhalchishin explains, for example, Botvinnik’s famous “flank against centre” strategy, which is one of the corner-stones of positional play. Also Petrosian’s white square strategy is an extremely important form of the control of squares and space. Tal was a great master of changing the material balance in every position – for example, rook and pawn against two pieces. GM Makogonov, once a trainer of Vassily Smyslov, invented the famous secret positional rule of the Soviet chess school. How and when it is possible to apply this method you will find out from this disc.

Adrian Mikhalchishin, a Grandmaster since 1978, is currently among the top 5 world trainers and FIDE Trainers Committee Vice-Chairman. He trained the team of USSR in 1980’s ,national teams of Slovenia, Poland and Netherlands, and was the trainer of Anatoly Karpov (1980-1986), trained Zsuzsa Polgar, Alexander Beliavsky, Maja Chiburdanidse, Arkadij Naidich and Vasily Ivanchuk.